Collection Highlights

March 2010

Chairs are rare in traditional African society, and even stools were reserved for rulers and the most important community leaders. Such men owned personal stools associated with their individual spirit, and on which no one else would sit. When not in use, the stool would be tipped on its side.

Asante stools match this basic form; variations in height and central support suggest the status and rank of the owner. The platform base, size, and leopard support indicate this one was made for a king. The fast, powerful and intelligent leopard is a potent symbol of a king.

All stools are a faint reminder of the Golden Stool, a sacred symbol possessing the soul of the entire Asante people. According to legend, it descended from heaven in a cloud of white dust and landed in the lap of the first Asante king in the late 1600s. The king’s priest proclaimed that henceforth the strength and unity of the Asante people depended upon the safety of the Golden Stool, now in the royal palace in Kumasi. No one ever sits on it and it never touches the ground; when a new king is installed he is raised and lowered over the stool three times but never actually sits down.

February 2010

Palmer was one of Illinois’ leading Impressionist painters, with the characteristic light palette and intimate views of life. She was born in McHenry, IL to immigrant parents. They encouraged her interest in drawing, sending her to the best art teachers in McHenry and in nearby Harvard. She studied for six years at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago before going to France. There she studied under the American expatriate artist Richard Miller, and worked in Brittany, Giverny and Italy.

Returning to Chicago, Palmer worked as supervisor of art in the public school system. She enjoyed a prolific career. She received many commissions for portraits from members of Chicago’s elite. She won scores of prizes and exhibiting works in the United States, Franc and Italy until the end of her life. Palmer was the first woman elected to serve as president of the prestigious Chicago Society of Artists.

Palmer and her husband, a physician, maintained a summer home in Provincetown, MA, a community popular with contemporary artists.